Spotting 2025 – Week 20

In last week’s post I intimated that 70000 ‘Britannia’ would be out and about again on Wednesday this week. I decided that I would look to catch some photos of the special she was working. Running from Norwich to Canterbury West, the train would be diesel hauled to Acton Lane Sidings where ‘Britannia’ would take over. As the diesel section would be hauled by heritage traction, I wanted to photograph that too – But where? Due to the changed rules on the Freedom Pass wherein I can’t travel before 09:00 on weekdays, it looked like this would be impossible unless I decided to use my bank card and pay to get somewhere. Gritting my teeth and cursing the previous government, I decided that I’d bite the bullet and aim to be at Highbury & Islington for 09:00 where I could tap out and then tap back in using my Freedom Pass for the rest of the day. It cost me £2.30p. I decided it was worth the money and effort when I captured 47593 ‘Galloway Princess’ passing through with the special…

…57311 was on the rear – one that I needed.

From here it was a dash over to Denmark Hill where I hoped to get another shot of ‘Britannia’. That proved to be a comedy of errors as I found myself in the wrong place on the station for an engineers train and also the special as times and platforms where changed – As I discovered after the event this was due to a bridge strike in Norbury 🙄 At times like these the best response is a shrug of the shoulders and get on with the rest of the day 😅

I caught the next train into Victoria and then picked up a train out to Clapham Junction. I took a quick hop along to Wimbledon to check for new arrivals on the depot there and then returned to Clapham Junction, getting a ride on one of the few Class 701’s actually in passenger service, 701017. Quite a few of the class spend a lot of time sitting on Clapham’s depot. Here’s 701018 shunting back in there…

I spent a couple of hours on Clapham Junction, catching some of the aggregates services routing through. For example 66103 in the heat haze…

…on a Newhaven Marine to Cricklewood run and 66415 on the Hanwell to Tolworth run…

I also picked up several of the 458/4 units that I needed as they’ve taken up residence on the Reading services. On the day I logged 191 in total of which I needed 8. I routed home via Waterloo and London Bridge, photographing 375808 at Waterloo East on the way with The Shard as a backdrop…

…I also picked up 7 new for haulage 👍

Next trip out was on Saturday and another early start as I wanted to catch one of the preserved Hastings units on a special run. I can remember traveling on these as a child when we went on a trip to the seaside. They were strange with their slab sided coaches. They were also unusual on the Southern Region in being diesel units – the line to Hastings wasn’t electrified back then. The history behind the the need for the narrow coaches dates back to the construction of the line between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings in the 1850’s. The contractors saved money by skimping on the tunnel linings. When this came to light after the line was opened it became necessary to reinforce the tunnels and this resulted in a reduction in the loading gauge necessitating width restrictions on stock using the line. In recent times the line has been electrified and, with modern signalling systems in place, each of the affected tunnels is now single track removing the need for non-standard stock. If you travel to Hastings today you’ll probably ride a Class 375 unit like ‘808 pictured above.

Back to last Saturday – I had to be at East Croydon for 09:00. Northern Line straight to London Bridge where I realised I had enough time in hand to pick what train to catch out. I selected the 08:07 Uckfield service – A fitting choice as the 171’s on this route are diesel units operating one of the very last non-electrified routes remaining on the Southern. That got me to East Croydon in time for a Coffee and Almond Slice as breakfast 😎 While waiting for the Hastings unit, I took a shot of 377326 being dispatched from platform 5…

…for its run to London Bridge via Tulse Hill and Peckham Rye.

Then with the Watford train sitting in platform 5, I was able to photograph 1013 coming through 4…

…making the wonderful ‘thumping’ sound that these units are famous for. That’s due to the 500hp English Electric diesel engines fitted in the power cars at each end. The slab sided coaches are evident though there are a couple of interlopers added as seen in this shot I took later at Clapham Junction…

…When built the Class 201’s had 6 coaches but many were scrapped when the units were withdrawn so a couple of normal gauge coaches rescued from scrapped electric units are inserted in the centre to bring the train up to strength. Once more the glorious thumping sound caught the attention – so much so that a lady passenger remarked to me “Wow – I wasn’t expecting that today – Wonderful!” 😎👍

Some hobbies don’t change much and some may disappear over time. There have been times when I thought Trainspotting was on its last legs. I certainly left the hobby for a while myself in the late 1980’s and when I returned from time to time it seemed that there were just a few older enthusiasts still out there. But the internet, social media, mobile phones and modern video equipment seem to have injected new life into the hobby. Now, when there’s something special running you can bet on an influx of enthusiasts who have tracked it down using the likes of Realtime Trains and RailCam on the internet. They’ll come equipped to video and photograph it. And they’ll move from location to location during the day to capture the various movements they’ve targeted. The hobby, or maybe the way the hobby is conducted, has evolved. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a dinosaur and yet my methods have also changed, taking the bits of the modern way that suit my needs while sticking to some of the old ways as well. The hobby is alive and I think it’s in a new set of safe hands…

…66753 operating the Dollands Moor to Daventry vans with some of the next generation of spotters at the end of the platform. You can’t see, but there’s half a dozen more on the other platform 😅 and they were all waiting to record 37800 ‘Cassiopeia’ departing…

…with 378206 in tow, after heavy maintenance, on its way home to New Cross Gate depot.

Not sure what next week will bring but hopefully I’ll have a report for you 😎👍